my talk at Social Business Edge: Designing a Culture of Collaboration

I was recently invited by Stowe Boyd to get out from behind the blog and participate in my first public speaking engagement. (ahhhh!) He organized a conference here in NYC, Social Business Edge, which brought together a lot of voices “developing an operating manual for 21st century business.” It was kind of surreal to be in the company of many people whose work I follow, like Jamais Cascio and John Hagel, and actually getting to talk to them. (turns out they’re just people too! shhhhh). So, here is my big breakout video. You can watch everyone’s talks here.

p.s. thanks Stowe, for the very nice intro 🙂

thanks Michael for inspiring the quote –> “Technology is the tool, not the builder. We are the builders.”

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17 thoughts on “my talk at Social Business Edge: Designing a Culture of Collaboration”

Thank you for doing this and caring to share, Venessa. I watched your talk live – streaming magic on an early morning in Japan – this is so much better than TV. Looking forward to more magic building from and with you.

Congratulations on your first TV appearance. I have a strong feeling it won’t be your last. Just wanted to add some $.02 to the convo.

I think you’re spot on with the garden metaphor.

Towards the problem of action, consider
First you find the seeds. Then time and care. All the while weed and water and hope for the gift of sunlight. Then pick the vegetables and flowers. Then slice,dice, cook the vegetables and arrange the table. Then sit down and have a pleasant dinner with friends.

My point is that ideation and trust can happen easiest in Cognitive Space. But action needs to happen in Physical Space. The great new thing is asynchronous communication. First the first time some humans can easily transcend boundaries of Space and can choose not to be carried forward by an unrelenting flow of time. The conversation is constant, the time needed becomes a variable.

But, it’s important not to confuse ideation for real life action. I think intellect workers tend to have a blind spot for physical space. The long standing contempt for print by much of the digital world is just one example. The prescriptive remedies of “thought leaders” to improve high school education is another. The most destructive examples I’ve seen were the “Best and the Brightest” in the Vietnam War and the neo-con “think” tanks in Iraq.

It’s pretty clear that this blindness is now shifting.

My theory is that it has to do with what O’Reilly calls Web Squared or the Internet of Things coupled with the natural devolution of economic power from North East Europe and America to South East Asia and Brazil. The way that plays out is that old economic engines are broke. It’s only when things are broken in Physical Space that new ideations have the space to grow in the real world.

yeah, creating the bridge between the cognitive space and the real life action is the tricky part. i’m working on it. basically has to start with the self. be the change. start doing the things you say you believe in, supporting those initiatives, finding your niche community and contributing. i see that talk only goes so far, and can be a convenient elitist tool that sometimes does not actually translate into anything. but it should be a process, yes. define the values and mission, make a plan, take action. adjust, realign, repeat.

@ Michael – I like how you hilight the internet of things and economic reset. Tools require social will to use and it seems there’s a perfect storm brewing in terms of social drivers (unemployment, globalization, inter-community competition for human resources, companies moving into the space – like in3d.com!) and new tools (metaverse, Fred Wilson’s golden triangle, exploding apps). Seems like we’re on the brink of some generational and acceleration driven creative destruction. Your prarie fire example resonates – check out The FOurth Turning by Strauss and Howe if you haven’t already.

@ Venessa – Nice presentation. Like the life metaphors. The noosphere lives! Will be cool to watch you lead your community to greener social media pastures! Resonates with a concept I’ve been feeling out – higher geosocial use. Keep up the good work!

I think all these ideas belong in the field of health as well as business- it would be great to get people meeting online for ideas exchange, in addition to the online social chat some of us do via Stickam and Plurktalk: http://www.stickam.com/plurktalk. We have had some great international linkups and it is great to see each other and our different styles of communicating.

i agree with you. call it “interdisciplinary” or “holistic” or “integrative” or whatever word you like, but i think we can all learn a lot by cross-pollinating our ideas that are usually closed off behind the walls of individual fields and disciplines.